You probably can't really be prepared for the changes a baby brings. You've heard, of course, about deprivations of sleep and freedom. But are you ready to deal with the grandmothers? It's said that having a baby will bring a woman closer to her own mother. But for some women, it's the start of a new, subtle but ugly power struggle, says Nina Barrett, author of "I Wish Someone Had Told Me" (Fireside, $9.95).

Tia Mowry-Hardrict, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Michael Boatman have joined the Nickelodeon family to star in NickMom's first scripted comedy, "Instant Mom. " Premiering Sunday, this Mom-centric, primetime program is built around Tia Mowry-Hardrict's character, who becomes an "Instant Mom" after inheriting her new husband's three children. "Instant Mom" is NickMom's first original scripted comedy -- what does that mean to you? Does being the pioneers of NickMom's first comedy add extra pressure on the show?

Five months into her pregnancy, Jessica Su was already thinking about what she would eat after her baby was born. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Su and her husband were sampling soups: pigs feet with dates and peanuts, pork chop with green papaya, beef and carrots with Chinese yam, sesame oil chicken. The makeshift cafe in Walnut was packed with pregnant women helping themselves from metal urns. Nicole Huang, the tasting event's sponsor, rushed from table to table answering questions posed in Mandarin and English: "Am I allowed to eat fruit?"

It might be the first time a major champion won't defend her title because of a baby. Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, who won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, announced Wednesday that she wouldn't be back at Mission Hills next month. Meunier-Lebouc gave birth Feb. 9 to her first child, a daughter named Phildine Pearl Lebouc. In 1990, defending champion Juli Inkster had a baby Feb. 3 but played the tournament anyway, about six weeks later, and tied for 11th.

Marie Osmond's Exercises for Mothers-to-Be, by Elizabeth Noble (New American Library: $12.95). This clearly ranks as one of the most honest celebrity exercise books in that it acknowledges that the exercises are designed by someone else (Noble) and merely demonstrated by the person who's name is in the title.

Three days after delighted spectators watched the birth of the calf he sired, Orky the killer whale died at Sea World. The death Monday leaves the amusement park chain with only one proven breeding male among its 12 surviving whales, dealing a blow to the breeding program it hopes will supply killer whales for shows at the park. Seven-ton Orky, at 30 or so the oldest killer whale in captivity, was so important to that breeding program that Sea World paid $23.

Why is Ventura County having such a difficult time deciding when welfare mothers with newborn infants should return to work? That is easy, and it doesn't take a college education to figure it out. Just ask any working mother who has delivered a baby. If the mother delivered naturally, she will return to work in six weeks. If she delivered her baby by C-section, she will return to work in eight weeks. Why do welfare mothers get to stay out of work 12 weeks to a year? Maybe all of us mothers should go on welfare and get the same amount of maternity leave.

In this era of downsizing and cost-cutting even childbirth is taking a hit. In what some complain is an attempt by insurance companies to save money, a trend toward earlier release of new mothers from hospitals has begun. Women are being discharged as early as eight hours after giving birth. Social activists complain that these new policies are particularly harmful to poor mothers released without the proper support and guidance.

By the time women reach 44 years old, roughly 85% have given birth. Yet even though pregnancy and childbirth are so commonplace, health insurance coverage and support services to keep mothers and babies healthy are often seriously deficient. Some private insurers, for example, treat pregnancy as a preexisting condition and charge pregnant women higher premiums or refuse to cover costs associated with childbirth. Low-income women can get Medicaid coverage while they're pregnant, but they generally lose it 60 days after giving birth unless they're very poor.

An Iraqi Airways charter flight arrived here late Saturday carrying 130 Americans from Kuwait, including a woman who gave birth to twins while fighting raged around her in the conquered nation. "I could hear the bombs while I was in labor," said Claudia Ledesma of San Diego, who delivered her babies on Aug. 26 while some resistance activity continued against the Iraqis 22 days after they invaded Kuwait.